What a shellacking Boston dished out to Brooklyn last night. The Boston Celtics showed no mercy to the Kevin Durant-less Nets as they led by as many as 49 points in a 139-96 dismantling of an Eastern Conference rival.
That’s how you bounce back from a slump in form against a contending team in the East.
The Celtics were suffering from one of their worst runs of form all season long as they only won one of their last four games, and that one win controversial came against the Lakers with the LeBron-Tatum no call at the end. So, in another timeline, the Celtics could have lost four straight games against beatable teams and be reeling atop the East as the Bucks, Nets, Cavs, and 76ers all gained momentum in the conference race.
Thankfully, for all Celtics fans, that did not happen, and the C’s went into the Nets game with a little confidence as they not only beat the Lakers to end their 3-game slide, but they also had won the last 9 matchups versus Brooklyn dating all the way back to last season. And their dominance over the Nets only continued last night.
Everyone on the Celtics went on an offensive tear as six players finished with double-digit point tallies, five players had five or more rebounds, the Celtics had their joint second-highest point tally at 139 PTS, and eleven players finished with at least two points on the night. In fact, out of the twelve C’s who saw the court, only Blake Griffin didn’t score any buckets or free throws…though he did have 3 REB and 1 AST in 9 minutes played.
Needless to say, the Nets never stood a chance.
Led by the league’s best dynamic duo in Jayson Tatum (31 PTS, 9 REB, 4 AST) and Jaylen Brown (26 PTS, 3 REB, 3 AST), the Celtics scored a team-high 46 points in the 1st Quarter alone, which nearly broke the all-time NBA record set by the Charlotte Hornets this season at 52 PTS. Obviously, when the Brown, Tatum, and the rest of the Celtics are in that kind of mood, there’s not a team in the NBA that can beat them.
Simply put, there’s just too many consistent scorers for opposing teams to have to shut down as if you can stifle the Dynamic Duo, then a combination of either Grant Williams (6 PTS, 2 REB, 0 AST), Payton Prichard (5 PTS, 2 REB, 2 AST), Derrick White (14 PTS, 10 REB, 5 AST), Malcolm Brogdon (10 PTS, 2 REB, 2 AST), Luke Kornet (12 PTS, 4 REB, 4 AST), Al Horford (9 PTS, 5 REB, 3 AST), Robert Williams III (16 PTS, 9 REB, 0 AST), Blake Griffin (0 PTS, 3 REB, 1 AST) and Sam Hauser (8 PTS, 5 REB, 1 AST) will beat you.
And the Nets couldn’t even do that.
Sure, Kyrie Irving had an okay game with 20 PTS, 4 REB, and 4 AST, but without the help of Kevin Durant or a consistent secondary scorer from the bench (Cam Sample came second in Nets scoring with 19 PTS), he was never going to be able to take on his former team alone. Though, getting out-rebounded 57-32 (a horrible -25 margin) never helps against a team that’s sole weakness is its paint protection.
Out of all the games the Celtics have lost or have just barely won, the vast majority of them are down to the fact that this team can get bullied in the paint by stronger, more aggressive center and forwards. Nic Claxton (9 PTS, 6 REB, 2 AST), Joe Harris (12 PTS, 2 REB, 2 AST) and Royce O’Neale (7 PTS, 6 REB, 4 AST) only having 14 total rebounds simple isn’t good enough to beat an East rival like Boston.
The Nets can’t just hope that Irving bails them out with 35 PT games every time they face a strong opponent.
Still, I give Irving a ton of credit for rebounding to an All-Star caliber level since his issues at the beginning of the season, but the Nets 4-7 run over the last 11 games Kevin Durant has missed due to his knee injury must show management that this Brooklyn (31-20) team is doomed if either Durant or Irving miss even a few games.
As for the Celtics (37-15), they are lucky still atop the East. That’s how bad they have been all month.
If they can pick up another big man before the deadline and cut out the occasional “childish” turnovers young, inexperienced teams make, then I don’t see any team beating them in the East when the playoffs roll around.
Images Source: Featured Image:
